Easter holidays – 5 ways to have fun as a family

It can be tricky to think of ways to keep the kids entertained during the Easter holidays without blowing the budget. My Family, Our Needs has 5 ideas to keep the whole family happy while they are off school and make the most of your time together. All without an eggcellent pun in sight!

Slow down

We’re all guilty of it as parents; trying to cram as much into our calendars as possible during the holidays so that our kids have the best time possible. But after what’s probably been a tiring term of school, a bit of wind-down time may do everyone in the family the world of good. Ease yourself into the Easter holidays and book your child into a Relax Kids class, which is open to all ages and all abilities.

Relaxation classes can, in particular, help children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or who suffer with general anxiety. Relax Kids classes include breathing and stretching exercises, mindfulness and therapeutic yoga and they also teach children to be aware of their own emotions. Their website has further details of how the classes can help children with additional needs.

Visit their website for more information or here to find your nearest class.

Easter egg hunts

Easter just isn’t Easter without sending the kids off on a wild goose chase to find that sweet treat at the end. The National Trust in partnership with Cadbury is probably one of the most well-known Easter egg hunts; there are 250 hunts to choose from across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Activities include face-painting, family games and craft activities so it’s not all about the chocolate either!

If you can’t venture too far, you could always organise your own Easter egg hunt at your local park or even in your back garden. If the weather is warm, it’s a great way to spend the afternoon and you can even invite a few of your child’s friends from school and make a play date out of it.

If you are organising an egg hunt for visually impaired children, talking eggs can be a great idea. They talk to you with the press of a button, so an adult could be in charge of guiding the children towards them. Depending on which eggs you buy, some pull apart so you could hide a small chocolate in the middle, or the children can collect all the eggs and then receive their chocolate prize at the end of the hunt.

If you don’t have audible eggs, you could record the clues beforehand on your phone and play them out loud to the children. You could add a sensory element to your Easter egg hunt by placing buckets of rice, water, marbles or jelly around the garden and getting the kids to fish the clue out of the bucket. They’ll love it!

You can find examples of talking or beeping Easter eggs on Amazon here or here.

Go to the cinema

We all know there are bound to be at least a couple of rainy days during the Easter holidays, so when the weather turns, head down to the cinema and make the most of the popcorn.

The charity Dimensions works with Odeon, Cineworld, Vue and Showcase cinemas across the country to screen a variety of films in a sensory-friendly environment for children. Thanks to April being Autism Awareness Month, Odeon are showing extra autism friendly screenings for the month, which means you can pick from films such as The Boss Baby, Power Rangers, The Lego Batman Movie and Beauty and the Beast.

You can see the full list of films and find your nearest participating cinema here.

A trip to the movies can be expensive, especially if you have more than one child, however most cinemas now have cheap showings on weekend mornings and some extend those to school holiday mornings too. Films might be a few months old, but for a fraction of the price of a normal ticket, it can be worth the wait. Check out your local cinema for more information.

Get out and about

The Rough Guide to Accessible Britain features updated online reviews of family days out. Featuring over 100 attractions, each one has been visited and reviewed by disabled people and their families. You can search attractions by type, region or access requirement, so then all that’s left to decide is whether you fancy going to the zoo, visiting a theme park or mooching round a museum. Just remember to check if opening times or prices vary during the Easter holidays.

Be brave and get baking

Chances are you’ll be having family or friends over during the Easter holidays so get your kids to help out with some baking. You could make cupcakes or go all out and get them to help you make one big celebration cake. Yes, there will be mess and you’ll definitely deserve a massive mug of tea and a sit down afterwards, but kids love the sensory elements of baking and seeing the end result of something they’ve helped create. Oh, and who are we kidding, they love licking the bowl too!

We love the kid-friendly recipes featured here which include chewy chocolate oat squares and simple iced fairy cakes which you could top with mini eggs or decorative bunnies just for Easter.

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